OK so I installed Windows 7 on my main system which now has XP x86. XP x64, Vista Ultimate x64 and now Windows 7 x86. XP Pro x86 is the OS on the System drive/partition and Windows 7 did not create a small separate system partition.

By the way, dual booting by installing on a system with other OS's like XP and Vista pre-installed, is a cinch with no issues at all. One would probably find that Windows 2000 also doesn't pose a problem.

I wonder what the most common dual boot scenario is going to be? XP installed on a system with pre-existing Windows 7? Most likely this because of program compatibility as with Vista. I don't really see why anyone will want to install Vista on a system with pre-installed Windows 7. Will there be a reason why someone would need to do that like there is because of program compatibility with Vista/XP?

"The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are." - Niccolo Machiavelli

Grav!ty wrote:OK so I installed Windows 7 on my main system which now has XP x86. XP x64, Vista Ultimate x64 and now Windows 7 x86. XP Pro x86 is the OS on the System drive/partition and Windows 7 did not create a small separate system partition.

By the way, dual booting by installing on a system with other OS's like XP and Vista pre-installed, is a cinch with no issues at all. One would probably find that Windows 2000 also doesn't pose a problem.

I wonder what the most common dual boot scenario is going to be? XP installed on a system with pre-existing Windows 7? Most likely this because of program compatibility as with Vista. I don't really see why anyone will want to install Vista on a system with pre-installed Windows 7. Will there be a reason why someone would need to do that like there is because of program compatibility with Vista/XP?

I think initially, the most common dual/multi boot scenario will be people running either XP or Vista (Mixed bag, probably most with XP) already and at least initially (Since W7 is beta) we will see people curious to see the Beta on their own systems. Likely many will BT to get the Beta if they are not Connect members and not in the Beta program, and when it goes public beta, we will see an increase in help requests for dual/multi booting. I think it will be the rare individual who builds a system to exclusively run W7 beta, although that is exactly my plan (Except I'm not going to build a system, just use an older one and wipe the XP Home on it) at least in the beginning.

Grav!ty wrote:I don't really see why anyone will want to install Vista on a system with pre-installed Windows 7. Will there be a reason why someone would need to do that like there is because of program compatibility with Vista/XP?

There may be some folks that will "want" to install Vista or XP on a pure Windows7 PC just to say they did it, or just curiousity, but out of "need", I don't think so. So many newer programs these days will run in just about anything. That being said, there will probably be a few that would need assistance.

So my next move here is now to install Windows XP Pro in a dual boot with Windows 7. I've already zapped the Vista Ultimate X64 install that was on Partition 2 and created a new clean partition for XP Pro x86. I'll start a new thread for that and post a link here.

I'm going to first try without allocating a drive letter to the system partition although I suspect that XP won't see it and that could have it's own set of issues but we need to know that.

No one has yet been able to confirm it, but I suspect that Build 7000 and the official Windows 7 Beta 1 due for release will behave in the same way.

Grav!ty wrote:Both the feedback from you and JD seems to suggest that if there is already an operating system like Windows XP or Windows Vista installed on the drive/partition tagged (System), that a separate system partition is NOT created by Windows 7.

This is not surprising, as there is already a system partition on such rigs.

It *would* be technically feasible to have setup create such a system partition on a hard drive already containing Windows, but it would be risky, add a significant chance for permanent data loss, and would likely add several hours to the setup procedures while it moved data and reorganised the partitioning on the drive on any single-drive hardware.

I think the system partition is for the users who want to use their bitlocker technology.They got hammered pretty bad on Vista for not preparing the system correctly.Other possibilities could be on future builds of Windows 7, a recovery console type of enviroment.MS also did purchase Systemneals and for MS's Enterprise customers we have their DART (Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset) disk.For anyone who has ever used the Winternal/Systernal Administartor's pack, that's what the DART disk is.It would be nice if MS were to include some of the tool set into this partition for out of band recovery of the OS.Currently we need to boot the PC using a CD for recovery.